Pirate Bay co-founder can be extradited to Denmark over new hacking charges

All this and Gottfrid Svartholm Warg is still on trial in Sweden.

On Monday, a Swedish district court approved a possible extradition (Google Translate) to Denmark for Gottfrid “anakata” Svartholm Warg, a Pirate Bay co-founder. The approval comes after new accusations against Svartholm Warg concerning a major hacking scandal in the adjacent Scandinavian country.

“The district court of Nacka has ruled today that Gottfrid Svartholm Warg may be transferred to Denmark in accordance with the arrest order from Denmark and that he must stay in custody until the transfer can take place, and the state prosecutor continues to have power to apply restrictions on Svartholm Warg's outside contacts,” wrote Jonas Alberg, the district magistrate, in a Swedish-language e-mail to ComputerSweden magazine.

“The transfer must take place no later than five days after the ruling takes force (this ruling may be appealed to Svea superior court within a week). The questions of whether the transfer will actually take place and if yes, when, is not a matter for the district court but is a matter for the state prosecutor to decide in cooperation with the relevant Danish authorities; the district court has just, after considering the request, confirmed that a transfer may take place.”

As we reported earlier this month, Svartholm Warg and another as-yet unnamed Danish co-defendant were accused of illegally accessing the country’s driver’s license database (Google Translate), social security database, the shared IT system across the Schengen zone, and the e-mail accounts and passwords of 10,000 police officers and tax officials. Apparently, all of that data was managed by CSC, a major American IT contractor. If convicted (Danish), the two men could face up to six years in prison.

“I was in court, but the doors were locked, so I couldn’t get any information,” Kristina Svartholm, the suspect’s mother, told Ars by e-mail. “[All I got was] that the court did NOT look at the Danish suspicions as such—not their business, the judge was clear about that, when it comes to extradition between Nordic countries.”

The alleged Denmark hack—particularly the Danish social security numbers (CPR) aspect—has become a major scandal in the Nordic country. It could have significant implications for every Dane (Google Translate), as social security numbers include each person’s birthday within the number itself. Thus, they cannot be easily and substantially changed. Danish media has reported (Google Translate) at least one instance of such data being sold on a Tor-hidden website—although those behind the ad have told the Version2.dk news site that their data cache is unrelated to Svartholm Warg’s case.

In Sweden, where Svartholm Warg is currently being held, the Pirate Bay co-founder was accused of hacking Logica, an IT firm that contracts with the Swedish tax authority. In 2012, Logica was hit by an online attack that resulted in about 9,000 Swedes (Google Translate) having their personal identity numbers released to the public. (In Sweden, most people's identity numbers are public information, but some can be kept private.) Svartholm Warg was also charged with fraud in the country.

According to ComputerSweden’s earlier account of the indictment (Swedish) as published by the Swedish prosecutor, Svartholm Warg allegedly tried to transfer 5.7 million Swedish kronor ($900,000) to various accounts. However, only 27,000 kronor (roughly $4,200) belonging to a Danish trade union was actually transferred out.

The verdict in the Logica trial is expected to come as soon as June 20, 2013.

I note with interest that a lot of the Internet seems to think these charges are trumped up and fabricated for the sake of extraditing him.

It's sad how far we'll go to defend people and ideas, to the point where the possibility of any genuine charge is completely disregarded...

On his hacking charge, I have no opinion. If there's proof he did it, then there's a point to all of this. Otherwise, I don't think his Pirate Bay history should come in to play at all (and this is coming from someone who's not a fan of the Pirate Bay staff's general attitude).

Never say never I guess. Anyone can eventually be extradited, extradition treaty or not.

I am confused, you do realise that the Scandinavian countries have close ties and thus their extradition treaties between one another are a bit different than between non-Scandinavian countries? Sweden trusts Denmark, because they both share interest.

And how different do you think Sweden and Denmark is? We are not really that different; he will not get a less fair trial in Denmark or be more likely to extradited to the United States, if that's what you're worried about.

I note with interest that a lot of the Internet seems to think these charges are trumped up and fabricated for the sake of extraditing him.

To Denmark? That seems like people don't have the slightest understanding of what Scandinavia is. First of all, Denmark has no interest in convicting him for the Pirate Bay (Denmark has already blocked the website and Sweden has already convicted him for that; why should Denmark bother?; he did not commit those crimes on Danish soil or against Danish interests), secondly, why can't these charges be real?

It seems like the most useless extradition to fake charges for, because it doesn't make a difference outside the Nordic countries, if he is in Denmark or Sweden.

Besides, the real scandal is how the organisations involved knew about this breach of data many months ago, and forgot to tell anyone, and the fact that it could happen in the first place.

it doesn't matter whether Svartholm is guilty or innocent and even whether there is proof or not, he will be found guilty anyway. he has to pay the price for standing up to the USA entertainment industries, for having the balls to tell them 'no, you are not going to dictate what i can or cant do'. he and the others did that, not for money but, in my opinion, to make a show. all this about the millions made in advertising, i dont believe it. i very much doubt if there is much money made from free sites after the costs are taken out. it's all just been excuse after excuse, to make him pay for committing the ultimate crime, standing up for freedom. these charges of hacking in Sweden and Denmark i doubt are any more true than the millions of $ made. he is being used as a scapegoat, not just for the USA industries but also because whoever did the hacking (if indeed there was any hacking) hasn't been caught and the respective authorities need to show they have done their job, even though, unofficially, they have failed!

it doesn't matter whether Svartholm is guilty or innocent and even whether there is proof or not, he will be found guilty anyway. he has to pay the price for standing up to the USA entertainment industries, for having the balls to tell them 'no, you are not going to dictate what i can or cant do'. he and the others did that, not for money but, in my opinion, to make a show. all this about the millions made in advertising, i dont believe it. i very much doubt if there is much money made from free sites after the costs are taken out. it's all just been excuse after excuse, to make him pay for committing the ultimate crime, standing up for freedom. these charges of hacking in Sweden and Denmark i doubt are any more true than the millions of $ made. he is being used as a scapegoat, not just for the USA industries but also because whoever did the hacking (if indeed there was any hacking) hasn't been caught and the respective authorities need to show they have done their job, even though, unofficially, they have failed!

There is no doubt that the servers of the Danish police have been hacked. The Danish Minister of Justice had to go to the European Commission and a ministerial conference of his EU colleagues and tell them that the Danish part of the Schengen Information System had been compromised, and that he furthermore had known about the breach for close to a year without informing anyone. Do you really think he would do that in order to frame a Swedish guy of questionable notoriety? Would you stand in front of a jury of your peers (powerful peers at that) and say "I fucked up, big time" just to frame someone who hasn't really done any harm to you ever?

Never say never I guess. Anyone can eventually be extradited, extradition treaty or not.

I am confused, you do realise that the Scandinavian countries have close ties and thus their extradition treaties between one another are a bit different than between non-Scandinavian countries? Sweden trusts Denmark, because they both share interest.

And how different do you think Sweden and Denmark is? We are not really that different; he will not get a less fair trial in Denmark or be more likely to extradited to the United States, if that's what you're worried about.

I was using a broad general context because he and others once said that he would never be extradited.

I have no worry for him at all, I could care less about him, I don't even know him. To me, he is just someone that created or ran something that facilitated the theft of property from someone else and in the mean while could make some money off it. The same thing that happens thousands of times a day all across the world and has happened all through human history, the fact that this used the internet does not make it unique as its just another way to do the same thing but all of a sudden people want to make it unique in some way because it was the internet and lend it far more attention than it deserves. If he broke the law then he broke the law, complaining about it one way or another isn't going to change that and its not going to be decided on the internet.

So i'm not sure what you are confused over and basically I don't care.

To me, he is just someone that created or ran something that facilitated the theft of property from someone else and in the mean while could make some money off it.

To me, he's someone accused of exposing me and essentially every one of my countrymen to identity theft.The hack he stands accused of is VERY serious for every single dane. During the initial coverage of the news of this hack, noone even cared to mention that one of the suspects had been involved with Pirate Bay, because that aspect of the story absolutely paled in significance next to what this hack could potentially mean to all of us danes.

Anyone who honestly believes that this is a covert scheme to get our hands on a Pirate Bay founder knows nothing about either Denmark, Sweden, or the seriousness of the crime that he's ACTUALLY being extradited for.

To me, he is just someone that created or ran something that facilitated the theft of property from someone else and in the mean while could make some money off it.

To me, he's someone accused of exposing me and essentially every one of my countrymen to identity theft.The hack he stands accused of is VERY serious for every single dane. During the initial coverage of the news of this hack, noone even cared to mention that one of the suspects had been involved with Pirate Bay, because that aspect of the story absolutely paled in significance next to what this hack could potentially mean to all of us danes.

Anyone who honestly believes that this is a covert scheme to get our hands on a Pirate Bay founder knows nothing about either Denmark, Sweden, or the seriousness of the crime that he's ACTUALLY being extradited for.

Why is it OK if the government has your data but not OK if Svartholm has it? Why isn't it a crime that the government left the data insecure? I think Svartholm points out some serious flaws in the system.

Why is it OK if the government has your data but not OK if Svartholm has it? Why isn't it a crime that the government left the data insecure? I think Svartholm points out some serious flaws in the system.

It isn't. My issue has largely been with the focus on the man - Svartholm - rather than scandal that is the government 'allowing' this breach to begin with. Besides, so far, we've seen no evidence of the data he obtained being distributed anywhere on the Internet. I don't mind the basic idea of the CPR-numbers, but they should be a bit more random (not containing birthday and sex, for instance). Although, CPR-numbers should not be considered secret either, because they are basically just User IDs. The only issue is people and companies not treating them as such.

To me, he is just someone that created or ran something that facilitated the theft of property from someone else and in the mean while could make some money off it.

To me, he's someone accused of exposing me and essentially every one of my countrymen to identity theft.The hack he stands accused of is VERY serious for every single dane. During the initial coverage of the news of this hack, noone even cared to mention that one of the suspects had been involved with Pirate Bay, because that aspect of the story absolutely paled in significance next to what this hack could potentially mean to all of us danes.

Anyone who honestly believes that this is a covert scheme to get our hands on a Pirate Bay founder knows nothing about either Denmark, Sweden, or the seriousness of the crime that he's ACTUALLY being extradited for.

Why is it OK if the government has your data but not OK if Svartholm has it? Why isn't it a crime that the government left the data insecure? I think Svartholm points out some serious flaws in the system.

People like you who make these hackers seem like "heroes" are enablers of the wrong type of activism. I never understand this, it's just like rape culture; for some reason you always, always want to blame the victim. The government did not maliciously intend to get hacked, so they are not committing a crime.

Then again, in today's Anonymous/Lulzsec-enamored youth, such distinction does not matter, it's all about "sticking it to the man" regardless of the consequences.